Over the past few decades, automobile manufacturers have made numerous innovations in automobile safety devices, and thus have greatly improved the safety of vehicle passengers. However, there has been a deficiency of innovative safeguards to protect pedestrians who may be hit by the front end of a passenger automobile. Vehicle collisions with pedestrians may cause severe injuries, such as life-threatening head trauma due to the pedestrian's head contacting the vehicle hood. The likelihood of head trauma from vehicle collisions is increased depending on the speed of the vehicle, the size of the vehicle, and the height of the hood. Larger vehicles, such as sports utility vehicles (SUV), have larger vehicle weights than other cars, and also have higher hood heights. Consequently, an SUV colliding with a pedestrian will contact a pedestrian with a greater force due to the increased weight, and will deliver that force at a higher point on the pedestrian's torso (i.e. a region closer to the head) due to the higher hood height. Accordingly, there is a need for vehicle hood structures having improved flexibility to absorb more of the impact and lessen the impact force on the pedestrian.